


It's for the aesthetic (and other shit Bucky says because he loves him)

by Enochianess



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Tumblr, for the aesthetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 07:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13519485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enochianess/pseuds/Enochianess
Summary: Bucky and Steve are roommates.Bucky likes doing things for the aesthetic and watching his tumblr follower count grow.Steve helps out.Oh, and they're in love.(It's extra cute and fluffy and I think you'll all love it so, muah!)





	It's for the aesthetic (and other shit Bucky says because he loves him)

**Author's Note:**

> I adored writing this fic! 
> 
> It was so much fun and is completely self-indulgent, but I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do.

Bucky is dancing.

Passion Pit is blaring loudly from his laptop speakers and he’s doing the most ridiculous dance of his life – arms and legs flailing as he spins and throws his head backwards and forwards. He actually feels a little sick, but in an exhilarating sort of way, and he just doesn’t want to stop.

“You come beating like moth’s wings,” he sings loudly and out of tune.

“For fuck’s sake, Buck,” Steve says when he walks in a couple of songs later. “The whole dorm can hear you.”

“Don’t care,” Bucky says, grinning widely. “I passed my math midterm, Stevie! I _passed_ it.”

Steve grins just as widely and throws himself at Bucky. “I’m so proud of you. We should celebrate.”

“With alcohol?” Bucky asks.

Steve rolls his eyes when he steps back, but he’s still smiling. “Yes, with alcohol. I’ll call Nat.”

“Tell her to get the good vodka,” Bucky says, bouncing on the balls of his feet when _Take A Walk_ starts playing. “I fucking love this song.”

“Reminds me of senior year,” Steve says, smirking.

They’d got up to so much shit that year and Bucky remembers it fondly, especially the drunken night on the beach at Coney Island when they’d run into the freezing cold ocean in all their clothes. They’d kissed each other warm and touched beneath the water until someone yelled at them to get the hell out before they got sick. They’d listened to Passion Pit through Bucky’s earphones the whole journey home.

They haven’t talked about it since, but they both remember it well – Bucky at least knows that. He hopes they’ll never forget it because it was a fucking amazing end to an amazing summer.

Their lives have only gotten better since. So what if they haven’t kissed again? Bucky gets to live with his best friend in Manhattan, where they both go to their dream school – NYU. They’re killing it at life and Bucky is just so hyped all the time because they’re living the _dream._

People wonder why Bucky Barnes walks around with a wide grin on his face, whether rain or shine, and the answer is simple – he gets to have Steve Rogers in his life.

(He has a crush on his best friend. So what?)

Natasha, Clint and Sam get to Steve and Bucky’s dorm room at eight that night, all dressed in sweatpants and hoodies. They’re all slobs, except for Bucky who always looks on point (if he does say so himself).

“Tonight,” Bucky announces from his spot on the floor, “we are celebrating my immense success in the gruesome world that is academia.”

“To Bucky,” Steve, Nat, Sam, and Clint all say loudly.

They’re all about to down their shot when Bucky stops them with a loud, “No! Wait a minute.”

“What for?” Natasha whines.

“I want to take a picture.”

Steve makes a noise of understanding. “He means with his hipster camera. He bought it when we went thrift shopping the other day.”

“Here it is,” Bucky says, proudly waving his Polaroid camera at his friends. “Smile everybody.”

He takes the picture and they all laugh as they wait for it to form on the film.

“Hey, that actually looks pretty good,” Sam says.

Bucky beams at him and nods because yes, he made a good investment.

“So, Bucky,” Clint says. “Tell us about this pink sweatshirt you’re wearing.”

“Oh, do you like it?” Bucky asks, looking down a little bashfully.

It’s baby pink and it’s soft and it’s pretty and it’s got a little black rose on one of the wrists that Steve had drawn for him.

“It looks good on you, man,” Sam says.

“Thank you.” Bucky beams.

“Jesus,” Steve laughs. “Tell them why you bought it in the first place.”

“They don’t need to know that, Steve.”

“JB, tell us why,” Natasha demands.

Bucky huffs and rolls his eyes at himself. “For the aesthetic.”

“The what now?” Sam asks.

“The _aesthetic.”_

Bucky frowns at Steve’s gleeful expression. He thought they were going to be friends forever… now he’s not so sure.

(He’s a total fucking drama queen, so sue him)

“Oh my god, do you have a tumblr account?” Clint asks. “Nat has one and its aces.”

“Really?” Bucky asks keenly.

“JB, literally everyone has tumblr. Even the people that say they don’t secretly do,” Natasha says.

“Nat has everything black and white and it’s, like, portraits of people and silhouettes. It’s sick,” Clint says. “What’s yours like, Buckster?”

“Um, aesthetics?”

Steve rolls his eyes, but as always he’s on Bucky’s side, so he nods his head and says in a grave tone, “Aesthetics.

A couple of hours later, Natasha and Clint are passed out on Steve’s bed, Sam is passed out on the floor, and Steve and Bucky are curled up together under the covers of Bucky’s bed.

“I’m real happy for you, Buck,” Steve says quietly, brushing Bucky’s hair off his forehead. “I know you were struggling in that class.”

“Did it though,” Bucky says, smiling with his eyes closed.

“That’s because you’re brilliant.”

“True.”

Steve slaps Bucky’s shoulder a moment before they burst into quiet laughter.

“I’m not gonna lie, Stevie. I’m pretty drunk.”

Steve hums. “So pretty when you’re drunk.”

Bucky leans forward to press a kiss to the cold tip of Steve’s nose, then rolls onto his back and pulls Steve tightly to his side. They hook their ankles together and snuggle into one another.

They fall asleep in seconds.

**

Bucky is not sure at which point he became… well, whatever it is that he is now.

He’s contorting himself at a weird angle, trying his best to find the perfect light, as well as trying to show off the “Art is a way of survival” on his t-shirt.

He falls off his chair when he hears Steve walking into their dorm room.

“Buck, wha-“ Steve starts, and then, “for fuck’s sake, not this again.”

“It’s for the aesthetic, Steve!”

“Do people even like your stuff?”

“Yes,” Bucky says indignantly. “I’ll have you know that I got five thousand notes on my last post.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep,” Bucky says, popping the ‘p’ like an asshole.

“How many followers have you got now?”

“Twenty thousand.” Bucky beams.

“Holy shit, Buck. Last time I asked you had, like, two hundred.”

“I worked hard.”

(If body contortion and the application of glitter and stickers on his face counts – it totally does)

“Lets have a look then,” Steve says, moving over to Bucky’s laptop.

“No, that’s private!”

“I meant the photo, not your account.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Bucky says, getting to his feet. “I took a couple, but none of them look right. I can’t quite get the angle.”

Steve looks over the few photos Bucky bashfully shows him, his brow furrowed as if he’s solving a problem. “Yeah, the light isn’t falling on your collarbones quite right.”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Bucky exclaims, pointing at the picture on his laptop.

Steve stands with his hands on his hips and points at his bed. “Sit there and let me take a picture.”

“Uh, really? You want to help?”

“Yeah. I mean, you like doing this, right? And it’ll get you more followers if the pictures are good.”

Bucky smiles brightly. “Thanks, Steve.”

(Really, Steve Rogers is the light of Bucky Barnes’ life)

“Let’s listen to something aesthetic-y,” Steve says.

“Aesthetic-y isn’t a word, but okay. What are you thinking?”

“Um, _Do I wanna know?_ That’s an aesthetic song, right?”

Bucky snorts. “It’s overused and overrated.”

“Well, what else is there?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve got a good idea of what we can listen to,” Bucky says.

“What?”

“Tongue Tied.”

“Oh my god,” Steve exclaims, “an _epic_ song!”

Bucky grins.

It’s a fucking great evening. They spend an hour taking pictures of Bucky in various outfits and states of undress, with different props they can find in their room, until they get bored and hungry. Then, they meet their friends for coffee and cheesecake at Barnes & Noble, swaying their hands between them the whole way.

If it starts raining on the way home, they don’t care. The run through it and then clutch each other tight when they get back to their building, pretending they’re in the middle of a scene from _Breakfast at Tiffany’s._

**

“B is for Bucky, not Beyoncé,” Bucky sighs.

“Excuse me?” Natasha says.

“It’s for the aesthetic,” Steve says from his desk.

Bucky and Natasha ignore him.

“I don’t know, I’ve been listening to Queen B a lot recently and I just got to thinking: B – Beyoncé, but also, B – Bucky. You know?” Bucky says.

“So you learnt how to stitch just so you could put ‘Queen B’ on your t-shirt,” Natasha says, nodding. “At least you’re committed to something I guess.”

“It’s for the aesthetic!” Steve shouts all of a sudden.

“You okay there, pal?” Bucky asks, frowning.

Steve rubs his eyes and shakes his head. “This assignment is hell. Literal hell, I swear.”

Bucky slides off the end of his bed and walks over to him. “Anything I can do?”

Steve tips his head back to look up at Bucky and pouts. Bucky wants to kiss him, but he won’t.

“Buy me some mint choc chip ice cream?” Steve asks, fluttering his eyelashes prettily.

“Sure thing,” Bucky says. “Come on, Nat. My Stevie needs sustenance and fast.”

“Are you going to take pictures of the ice cream _for the aesthetic_ too?” Natasha teases.

“No, it’s for _Steve.”_

“You’d pick Steve over aesthetics?” Natasha asks as they close the dorm room door behind them. “It must be love.”

Bucky blushes, shaking his head.

(Oh traitorous body, why must you blush?)

“Don’t worry, JB. We all know.”

“All know what?” Bucky asks, eyes focused on where he’s walking down the stairs.

“That you love Steve.”

“I, um, I mean, of course I do. He’s my best friend.”

Natasha laughs, pressing a kiss to Bucky’s shoulder as she wraps an arm around his waist. “It’s okay, JB. We won’t tell.”

Bucky releases a heavy sigh. “Thank you.”

“He loves you too though. Just so you know.”

Bucky rolls his eyes (they’re going to fall right out of his head one day) because that would just be too good to be true. Nobody gets that much happiness – he’d probably die of it. Can someone die because of a happiness overdose?

“Come on, stop having crazy love thoughts in the street and lets buy your guy some ice cream.”

Bucky follows in a daze.

(Maybe Steve loves him, maybe he doesn’t. Does it matter? Bucky will love Steve forever either way)

**

“What the hell are you doing that for?” Steve asks, watching with horror as Bucky prepares to set a rose on fire.

“It’s for the aesthetic, Steve,” Bucky grumbles. “ _Obviously_.”

“I can’t believe you dragged me here for this,” Steve hisses. “It looks like we’re committing arson or something.”

So, maybe this isn’t one of Bucky’s greatest ideas, but he’s seen other people doing it on tumblr and it looks fucking awesome. Now that he’s holding his lighter up to the single pink rose he’s holding in his hand, it feels a little different.

“It’s not arson if I don’t do it,” Bucky mumbles.

“Oh hell no,” Steve says. “You dragged me here, so we’re doing it. Come on, switch places if you ain’t gonna do it.”

Bucky hands the rose and lighter to Steve and takes the camera from him.

“Ready?” Steve asks, his finger ready on the lighter.

Bucky nods and watches with amazement as the rose catches fire, the light illuminating Steve’s white t-shirt and the column of his neck. He takes photo after photo after photo, getting Steve to turn this way and that. He switches from his phone camera, to his digital, to his polaroid. He even takes a short video, one of Steve looking at him cheekily (and a little demurely) from beneath his devastatingly long eyelashes.

When Steve finally drops the stalk of the rose and steps on what little is left of the flame, Bucky can’t help but step towards him and pull him into a hug.

“That was amazing,” he says. “Seriously, I got some fucking awesome stuff and you looked… _incredible_ , Steve.”

Bucky can tell Steve is blushing by the way he turns his face into Bucky’s neck and bites down on the apex of his shoulder.

**

“Damn it,” Bucky mutters.

“What?” Steve says.

“I have the perfect idea, but I, uh, need someone to kiss.”

“Oh, really?” Steve asks, clearing his throat.

“Yeah, I was thinking, like, an upside down kiss like in Spiderman, but with bright pink bubblegum.”

“You want me to help out?”

“You’ll do that?” Bucky asks breathlessly. “We’ll have to burst a bubblegum bubble between our lips.”

“Of course I will.”

Bucky nods. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it then.”

(Is it hot in here? Bucky is on fucking _fire_ )

He’s nervous as hell as he leans over where Steve is sitting on the edge of the bed, bubblegum bubble ready. He taps Steve’s chin to get him to tilt his head back and to tell him to get the camera ready. Then, easy as anything (Bucky is dying on the inside. Holy shit, help him), Bucky leans down and presses the bubble to Steve’s parted lips. His eyes fall closed and he gasps at the sound of the bubble popping between them.

He’s going to pull back, he is, except then Steve starts slowly moving his sticky lips against Bucky's and oh god, yes, it’s happening, they’re kissing.

They kiss and kiss and kiss and it’s _heaven._

(If heaven was a place on Earth, it’d be found inside Steve Rogers’ mouth)

“Buck,” Steve whispers against Bucky’s lips. “I think I took too many pictures.”

Bucky laughs as he stands upright, wiping the bubblegum from around his mouth. He sits beside Steve and they flick through the photos, leaning against each other and giggling when they get to the pictures of them making out.

“I can’t believe you kept taking them,” Bucky says.

“I thought you’d want them. For the aesthetic!” Steve says, his eyes dancing with laughter.

“You’re my aesthetic,” Bucky whispers, leaning down to brush their noses together.

“You’re such a sap.”

(It’s true, but he’s Steve’s sap, so…)

**

“Please tell us what we’re looking at here,” Natasha says over the phone. “I’m with Clint and Sam and we’re trying not to get our hopes up.”

“It’s us,” Bucky says, grinning down at where Steve’s head is resting on Bucky’s naked thigh.

They’d sent them a link to Bucky’s tumblr account, knowing they’d see the most recent post: one of their naked chests pressed together, arms wrapped around necks, with the sunlight showing Steve in the light and Bucky in the dark.

“Perfect caption.”

“I know,” Bucky says.

_“He’s your aesthetic,”_ Natasha says. “It’s sickening.”

“I’m so happy, Nat,” he whispers, stroking his finger softly across Steve’s cheekbone, “so, so happy.”

“Me too,” Steve mouths, smiling softly.

(Turns out you don’t die from a happiness overdose, but Bucky thinks, even if that were true, he’d go willingly if it meant having Steve in his life like this even if just for a moment more)

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](http://enochianess.tumblr.com)
> 
> If you liked it, please leave kudos or comments!


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